PHOTOS: Where’s the beef? Not in Alberta, if this province’s beef industry can do anything about it. One thing this story has nothing to do with is small-time ranchers like the guy on the steer or independent restaurants like the one run by the mom…
Continue readingTag: temporary foreign workers program
Politics and its Discontents: Some Disturbing Signs
I won’t for a moment pretend that I am not glad to see Justin Trudeau’s Liberals as our new government. But as happened with a vice-principal we teachers once welcomed with open arms as a relief from the previous administration, my early hopes for real…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Accountability, Whither Thou Goest?
If there is one good thing to be said about the Leslie Roberts scandal, it is that privately owned Global Television has acted with dispatch both in its investigation of the newsman/PR firm co-owner’s terrible breach of ethics, and its subsequent actions. While the official ‘story’ is that Roberts has
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Sleepy Yellowhead by-election set for November 17
TweetA big Conservative win is inevitable in this rural Alberta riding When recently resigned Conservative Member of Parliament Rob Merrifield was appointed by Premier Jim Prentice as Alberta’s Representative in Washington D.C., many political watchers in Alberta were caught by surprise. It was known that the MP was spending an increasing amount of time lobbying
Continue readingAlberta Diary: The horror! The horror! Brent Rathgeber and the St. Albert Chamber of Commerce on the nightmare of too few TFWs
St. Albert by night. My lord! What would we do if the local McDonald’s wasn’t open at 3 a.m.! Below: Edmonton-St. Albert MP Brent Rathgeber. St. ALBERT, Alberta I have a challenge for Edmonton-St. Albert Member of Parliament Brent Rathgeber, the St. Albert Chamber of Commerce and all the other
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: A Liberal win in Fort McMurray-Athasbasca would send shockwaves to Ottawa
TweetTomorrow, voters in four federal ridings across Canada, including Alberta’s Fort McMurray-Athabasca and Macleod, have an opportunity to choose their next Member of Parliament. Paying close attention to a by-election campaign may not be the most thrilling activity to occupy your time during the summer months, but it is an important one.
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Progressive Conservative leadership candidates take aim at federal bogeyman, demand Alberta’s own immigration policy
Alberta’s three Progressive Conservative leadership candidates contemplate Ottawa mucking about with the beloved Temporary Foreign Worker Program. From left to right: Ric McIver, Jim Prentice and Thomas Lukaszuk. Actual would-be Alberta premiers may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: the real Messrs. McIver, Prentice and Lukaszuk. Never mind Alberta’s Lake
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Where’s the beef? Ottawa and the fast-food lobby are serving nothing but baloney about the need for Temporary Foreign Workers
Whatever it says on the menu, fast food restaurant owners, other employers of temporary foreign workers and their pals in the Harper Government are serving baloney. Below: Dominique M. Gross of Simon Fraser University; Charles Decatur “C.D.” Howe. Advocates of the Harper Government’s so-called Temporary Foreign Workers Program are using
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Everyone’s A Politician
At least that might seem to be a reasonable inference to draw given people’s increasing capacity not to answer questions that make them uncomfortable or expose a weakness in their position. I have listened to Dan Kelly, President of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, twice recently. Like a politician,
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Political Ambition And Public Outrage
The interesting thing about political ambition and public outrage is that sometimes they work synergistically to produce positive results. Jason Kenney, whose ambition to become the Conservative Party’s next leader have been widely rumoured, announced yesterday that fast food restaurants are being suspended from participation in the Temporary Foreign Workers
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: More On The Temporary Foreign Workers Program
As noted yesterday, the Temporary Foreign Workers Program continues to cause both grief and outrage among Canadians. The latest publicly-identified victims, two former employees at a Weyburn Sask. eatery called Brothers Classic Grill and Pizza [previously called El Rancho], are receiving a groundswell of support both locally and across the
Continue readingMelissa Fong: If there was any doubt that racism is alive and well in Canada….
Yesterday I wrote a mini-rant on the “gaze” of the CBC article on the Temporary Foreign Workers Program. Look, you can disagree with me and argue that it was just […]
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Temporary Foreign Workers Program: Yet More Abuse And Heartbreak
Although the Temporary Foreign Workers Program predates the ascension to power of the Harper regime, there is mounting evidence that the abuses occurring under the program, none of which I am aware predate 2006, have been nurtured by the current cabal that consistently elevates the interests of business over the
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The House That Ronald Built
… seems to be undergoing some serious perturbations these days. Earlier in the month came the story of three McDonald’s outlets in British Columbia abusing the Harper regime’s TFWP (Temporary Foreign Workers Program) by hiring temporary workers instead of available local people and reducing the hours of Canadian employees. Now
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Another Harper Lie Exposed
Despite assurances last year that the TFW (Temporary Foreign Workers) program was being reformed because of a myriad of reported abuses, those assurances, like so many other pronouncements and assertions coming from the Harper regime, appear to be false. Business continues to abuse the program, with what one can only
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Criminal employers are employers too, Alberta government spokesman says, but illegal strikes are still illegal
If feeding your employees to lions is outlawed, then only outlaws would be able to feed their employees to lions! Or is that the other way around? Whatever. In Alberta, we don’t think it would be fair to criminal employers either way. We also don’t think it’s fair not to
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Gordon Nixon: RBC chief among the most overpaid bank CEOs in North America
According to Bloomberg Markets, Royal Bank of Canada President and CEO, Gordon Nixon, is among the most overpaid bank CEOs in North America. Now we know what the RBC did with the profits made from hiring cheap temporary foreign workers, and from the Harper government’s secret $114 billion bailout during
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Kellie Leitch Speaks Again In Her ‘Master’s Voice’
Like the good yeo(wo)man she is, Ms Leitch never deviates from the Harper regime script as she ‘answers’ Evan Solomon’s questions about the Temporary Foreign Worker’s Program. One only hopes that her collar is not pulled too tightly; given Canada’s doctor shortage, it would be sad to lose a trained
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: And Now, A Word About Kellie Leitch From The Salamander
The question of personal integrity is one that is very near and dear to my heart. Since literature at its best is a reflection of some of the deepest truths about human nature, during my teaching career, it was a topic I explored with relish every time the curriculum permitted
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Speaking of Political Integrity …
See if you can detect even a modicum of it in Kellie Leitch, who starts talking at about the 9-minute mark of this video dealing with the massive abuses in the Temporary Foreign Workers Program: Somehow, I don’t think this is what Judith Timson meant when she talked about authenticity.
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